The Cowboy's Claim. Carla Cassidy
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Название: The Cowboy's Claim
Автор: Carla Cassidy
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
isbn: 9781472038760
isbn:
“Sounds like you have a full house this evening,” Courtney said as they headed toward the family room. Usually by the time Courtney arrived there was only one or two extra children.
“The Morrises asked if I could keep the twins late tonight. It’s their anniversary and they wanted to have a nice romantic evening together without the boys,” Sophie explained.
As they entered the family room, Courtney’s gaze automatically darted around the room for the fifteen-month-old dark-haired, blue-eyed little boy who owned her heart and soul.
Garrett. He was clad in a pair of cowboy-printed pajamas and sat on the floor playing with a stack of colorful wooden blocks. When Courtney drew closer, he looked up and his face was wreathed in smiles.
“Ma-Ma!” He raised his chubby little arms toward her.
As she picked him up, her heart swelled full in her chest. “Hi, baby. Hi, Garrett,” she said as she kissed the side of his face. “Were you a good boy today for Sophie?”
“Sophie,” he echoed and pointed to his daily caretaker.
“He’s always a good boy when he’s here. He’s the most laid-back toddler I’ve ever met. He’s freshly changed and ready for bed.”
Courtney smiled and gave Garrett a hug. “Thanks, Sophie. We’ll get out of your hair, and I’ll see you tomorrow around eleven-thirty.”
Sophie walked with her to the door, and a minute later Courtney had Garrett in his car seat in the back of the car. By the time she arrived at the motel, he was fast asleep.
She gently lifted him from the seat and carried him into the motel room they called home. Next to her bed was the crib, where she gently placed the sleeping boy and covered him with a light blanket. She laid her finger lightly on his little cleft chin, as if wanting to hide the characteristic that marked his paternity.
For several long moments she gazed at the son who had been conceived the night of Cherry Benson’s death. That night, as Nick had come at her with silent, horrible grief and she’d embraced him, needing to somehow ease his pain, neither of them had thought about birth control.
And when Nick had blown out of town, he’d had no idea that he’d left her with a piece of him that would change her life forever.
He hadn’t called. He’d offered no explanation. He’d just disappeared. And now it was too late. He had left her without a word, broken all the promises they’d made to each other. He didn’t deserve to have a son, and she had no intention of ever telling him of Garrett’s existence.
Chapter 2
The Benson ranch had always been a source of great pride. Not only had it been financially successful, but Sam had worked hard to keep the large ranch house, surrounding lawn and outbuildings in pristine condition.
As Nick got his first glimpse of home, his heart dropped to his feet as he realized it was far worse than what he’d expected. Despite the summer heat, the lawn was a jungle of overgrown weeds and brush. A tractor-style mower sat amid the mess, as if at some point the operator had simply given up on any attempt to restore order.
Nick got out of his truck, momentarily overwhelmed by the neglect around him. Obviously Cherry’s death had yielded far-reaching effects that none of them could have ever foreseen.
For just a minute Nick wanted to jump back into his truck and drive as fast as he could back to his uncomplicated life in Texas. Run...avoid...escape painful and difficult things. That’s what he’d done on the day of Cherry’s funeral. But, that was the man he’d been two years ago. That wasn’t the man he was now.
Straightening his shoulders, he headed for the stairs leading up to the front porch, noting that one of the handrails was missing.
He opened the front door and his nose was instantly assailed by the odors of overripe fruit, dirty socks and sour booze.
“Hello?” he called. “Adam...are you here?”
“In the kitchen,” a deep voice returned.
Nick found his older brother seated at the kitchen table, his fingers curled around a coffee mug and his bloodshot blue eyes narrowed to near slits. “So, the prodigal son has finally come home.” There was a touch of censure in Adam’s voice that Nick ignored.
As Nick went to the cabinet to grab a mug, he tried to ignore the mound of dirty dishes in the sink and the garbage bag that overflowed onto the floor. “Is that coffee fresh?”
Adam nodded. “I made it about an hour ago when I finally decided to get out of bed.”
Nick poured his coffee and then sat in the chair opposite his brother. “Been spending a lot of time in bed?”
“In bed or drunk.” Adam raised his chin as if in defiance.
“Sounds productive.” Nick took a sip of the strong coffee and held his brother’s gaze above the rim of his cup. Adam was thirty-three, but at the moment he looked ten years older.
“You should have been here, Nick.” Adam finally broke the gaze and instead stared at some point over Nick’s shoulder. “You should have stuck around after Cherry died, then maybe you would have seen the sickness in Sam, the sickness I didn’t see.”
Nick sat back in his chair, surprised as he continued to look at his brother. “Surely you aren’t blaming yourself for what Sam has done?”
Adam raked a hand through his thick, dark, unruly hair. “I should have seen that he was sick, that he was howl-at-the-moon crazy. He and I were so close. If I’d known how he felt I might have been able to stop him. But somehow I missed something, and now there’s nothing left of our family. Cherry is gone, Sam has disgraced us all and there’s nothing left.”
“There’s you and me,” Nick replied. “Adam, you’ve got to pull yourself up out of this funk and get back to the job of taking care of this place, taking care of yourself.”
Adam shoved back from the table. “I don’t want to hear you telling me what I have to do. You ran out on us. I figure you’ll be here for a week or two and when you realize how tough it is to live in a small town where everyone’s talking about your family, when things get just a little bit too hard, then you’ll do what you always do—you’ll run out again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bottle of whiskey waiting for me in my room.”
As Adam left the kitchen, Nick remained at the table. Yes, it was definitely worse than he thought. He and Adam had never been particularly close. Sam had been thirty-four and Adam thirty-one when Nick had left town. The two older brothers had always aligned with each other, while Cherry and Nick had bonded together as the younger siblings.
He finished his coffee, rinsed his cup and then went outside, deciding the dishes and the other kitchen cleanup could wait until later. He headed for the stables in the distance, wanting to ride the pastures and check out the livestock.
Surely Adam hadn’t fallen so deep into the bottom СКАЧАТЬ